Climate Change

Fellow Story

Gill on unusual summertime dust storms

Scientists said that some of the season’s dust storms had been the most intense since the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. They have caused power outages and deadly crashes around the Southwest.
August 8, 2012
Fellow Story

Blackmer on mitigation versus adaptation

With a link between extreme weather and rising greenhouse gases, two thoughts are emerging. Many environmentalists say we should work toward mitigating greenhouse gases but others suggest the problems are irreversible and so we have to adapt to inevitable change. But for some this idea is uncomfortable. They worry that adaptation means giving up. Today we look at these two different thoughts around climate change and see where we go from here. Listen to the full story
August 7, 2012
Fellow Story

At the Water's Edge

Scientists around the world are studying global climate change and developing various scenarios regarding its potential impact. But the real action and impact will occur at the local level. This is what Switzer Fellows Lisa Micheli and Healy Hamilton are working on in a project they call At the Water's Edge.
July 30, 2012
Fellow Story

Orosz awarded Echoing Green Fellowship

Matt Orosz is an inventor and entrepreneur focused on overcoming the challenges to building sustainable energy infrastructure in underserved areas. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho, Matt's experience living without electricity or running water catalyzed his study of engineering and the foundation of STG International, an organization that works to build capacity for solar micro-utilities. Read the full story
July 27, 2012
Fellow Story

Wisland authors report on how California public utilities are meeting the 33 percent renewables requirement

California's Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) law requires all utilities to generate 33 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020. The state's 10 largest publicly owned utilities (POUs) deliver approximately one-quarter of the state's electricity needs and have made significant strides in clean energy investments since the start of the RPS program. However, the degree to which these investments promoted new clean energy resources varied significantly by utility.
July 27, 2012
Fellow Story

Steele quoted on heat islands in Los Angeles area

"I call them heat storms. Because they are so dramatic. In 2006, we had a heat wave and 147 people were documented as dying by the Los Angeles County Coroner. But researchers believe the number was three or four times higher - that over 600 people died as a result of that heat wave," explained Nancy Steele, executive director of the Southern California-based Council for Watershed Health, which used to be called the Los Angeles & San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council.
July 25, 2012
Fellow Story

Pairis on California's new state bird guide highlighting climate change risk

"This is really pivotal research that will help us plan for mitigating the effects of climate change," said Amber Pairis, climate change adviser for the Department of Fish and Game. Pairis said the state agency is building similar lists for rare plant species, amphibians, reptiles and mammals. She said the study and guide provide a platform for allowing climate change to become part of conservation discussions and not treated as a separate topic or chapter.
July 19, 2012
Fellow Story

Hamilton on Peter Gleick's ethics lapse over climate papers

Colleagues said Gleick was acting on the growing frustration that many other scientists are also feeling. "Scientists are up against a political machine trying to create controversy and uncertainty where none exists," said Healy Hamilton, a biodiversity scientist and visiting scholar at UC Berkeley. "How do you deal with an enemy that actually refuses to believe science?"
July 18, 2012
Fellow Story

Aldy profiled in Harvard Magazine

When Joseph Aldy trekked up Mount Kilimanjaro with his father in 2000, he was a long way from the farm in Kentucky where he grew up—but close to the things that matter to him. Aldy is an economist who works on energy and climate-change policy. He loves to hike. On Kilimanjaro’s 19,341-foot peak, he got to see the last vestiges of the 11,000-year-old glaciers there—they are expected to disappear within the next decade or so. Read the full story
July 16, 2012
Fellow Story

Hagan co-authors chapter on regulating legal liability for carbon capture/sequestration projects.

About the book: The United States produces over seventy percent of all its electricity from fossil fuels and nearly fifty percent from coal alone. Worldwide, forty-one percent of all electricity is generated from coal, making it the single most important fuel source for electricity generation, followed by natural gas. This means that an essential part of any portfolio for emissions reduction will be technology to capture carbon dioxide and permanently sequester it in suitable geologic formations.
July 10, 2012